"Indeed! How do you account for that?"
"Oh! I've nothing to do with accounting for it. I'm merely stating the fact."
"You surprise me. But perhaps there's nothing more than a little tiff at the bottom of his absence."
"If you mean as between Frank and Hermia, I must tell you that I don't think Hermy cares twopence about him in the way you imply."
John stared blankly at his sister.
"My eyes have been opened of late," went on Miss Charlotte. "Whether it's owing to trouble, or something else, I don't know, but I seem to see many things now in a different light from that which I used to see them in, and you may depend upon it, dear, that if our girl cares for anybody, it's not for Frank Derison."
"Which means that she cares for someone else. But who is there?"
"What say you to Clement Hazeldine?"
"To be sure!--though I never thought of him in that connection. But do you mean to say----?"
"I mean to say nothing, though I may have my suspicions."